Electric in the Water

I was drowning before I even touched the water. Mom had me on this new vitamin routine that was supposed to help my "adolescent development" or whatever, which basically meant I was already feeling like a science experiment. Then Maya's pool party invitation slid through my phone screen, and suddenly I was spiraling.

My hair had been doing this weird frizz thing all summer thanks to humidity, so naturally I decided the solution was a hat. A beanie. In July. Because that's not suspicious at all.

"You're not swimming?" Maya asked when I showed up, fully clothed while everyone else was cannonballing into her pool.

"Just vibing," I said, trying to look chill instead of like I was having an internal crisis about my hair situation.

Tyler was there, of course. Tyler, who I'd had a crush on since eighth grade algebra, now shirtless and wet and why did the universe hate me?

The sky chose that exact moment to crack open. Lightning spiderwebbed across the clouds, and suddenly everyone was scrambling out of the water, grabbing towels, yelling about the storm rolling in.

"My dad's got a covered porch!" Maya shouted, and we all bolted for it as thunder shook the ground.

I ended up squished next to Tyler on the porch swing, my heart hammering harder than the storm outside. Rain poured down in sheets, turning the backyard into this wild, glittery mess.

"Nice hat," Tyler said, and I thought he was being sarcastic until he actually smiled. "You cold?"

I wasn't. I was electric. Something about the storm, the chaos of it all, made me yank off the beanie. My hair sprung out everywhere, a frizzy crown of teenage awkwardness.

Tyler just looked at me and said, "Your hair is actually kind of awesome," and suddenly the vitamins and the anxiety and the overthinking all dissolved into something else.

The storm cleared. We went back inside. And I realized nobody had been looking at my hair anyway—they were too busy worrying about their own stuff.

That's the thing about growing up: you think you're the main character in your own personal tragedy, but really, everyone else is just trying to figure out their own lightning moments.